The website keeps you entertained with lots of pretty flows charts though._________________I experience pleasure and pains, and pursue goals in service of them, so I cannot reasonably deny the right of other sentient agents to do the same - Steven Pinker

I had a vaguely similar idea for trains whereby passengers would get on a carriage or two at the station which would get up to speed and the train passing through would chain on behind before its rear carriage(s) would peel off to stop at the station. The passengers would have to shuffle back to the rear of the train to get on the stopping carriages.

There are doubtless *a lot* of practical issues with this idea when applied to trains but on a smaller and more flexible scale like this it might have potential. It could certainly lead to very quick, uninterrupted journeys.

I suspect, like transport throughout the ages, there will be a mixture of means of conveying goods and people in the future too, so people putting on their thinking caps over it isn't a bad thing.

If only we didn't have to wait for the catastrophe before actually doing something._________________I experience pleasure and pains, and pursue goals in service of them, so I cannot reasonably deny the right of other sentient agents to do the same - Steven Pinker

Not really, no. What's the actual point in it? What does going to all the bother of having detachable/attachable modules gain anybody? Why is it any improvement over small self-driving vehicles that remain separated?

Brilliant. Great song, great performance. Next!_________________I experience pleasure and pains, and pursue goals in service of them, so I cannot reasonably deny the right of other sentient agents to do the same - Steven Pinker

What's the actual point in it? What does going to all the bother of having detachable/attachable modules gain anybody? Why is it any improvement over small self-driving vehicles that remain separated?

I'm assuming that single modules would travel lesser-used routes, joining with others on busier routes. The detachable aspect means they can peel off down other lesser-used routes; meanwhile, passengers can change modules during motion.

What is actually needed is the elimination of fossil-fuelled transport plus a reduction in the need for transport._________________I experience pleasure and pains, and pursue goals in service of them, so I cannot reasonably deny the right of other sentient agents to do the same - Steven Pinker

I think that individual cars would still be better as they would give more flexibility in destination. You could get in, punch in your destination and the car would take you there by the shortest route using in road wire guidance systems which would control direction, speed and vehicle distance. They would be able to travel closer to each other than current vehicles as the vehicles would be able to communicate with each other and when moving slowly they could travel virtually bumper to bumper.

If you have large numbers of vehicles going the same way as the Next system seems to cater for you might as well get on a train or a tram. What if you're in the wrong car when yours turns off, or someone else in in it and is taken the wrong way?

An integrated system of driverless cars, trams and trains is required to cater for all transport requirements. Country dwellers could book a car, as now with a taxi, and it would turn up as and when required. It would put a lot of taxi drivers out of work though.

Like all these technological improvements it will be a race between the technology being delivered and the economic system crashing. I favour the crash myself bought on by the Kleptocracy doing what the name implies with the financial system._________________Action is the antidote to despair - Joan Baez

I wouldn't be surprised if you could get away with a lot fewer vehicles with next.

with this system you have an initially low load factor for the short journey between the pick up and the main section of your journey where you join a high load factor platoon of vehicles and then at the end of your journey you have another, short, low load factor section to get you to your destination. in the meantime, the vehicle that picked you up has gone and picked up / dropped off a load of other people.

with individual cars going from pick up to destination you're going to have low load factors all the way so you'll need more vehicles to shift the same number of people.

The problem I see with the Next open car system is that people could be in the wrong place in the train when the cars separate. With individual cars you could still have multiple use and they could be used for part journeys with passengers changing en route. The individual cars could also entrain for parts of the route to facilitate faster running although, with automatic control, the spacing could be only a couple of feet._________________Action is the antidote to despair - Joan Baez

The problem I see with the Next open car system is that people could be in the wrong place in the train when the cars separate. With individual cars you could still have multiple use and they could be used for part journeys with passengers changing en route. The individual cars could also entrain for parts of the route to facilitate faster running although, with automatic control, the spacing could be only a couple of feet.

Yeah I think there are some challenges around positioning yourself although I'm sure they could be mitigated with well designed communications systems. A bigger problem for disabled / elderly people but I guess there's nothing to stop a car with an elderly person in it being the one that peels away even if it's in the middle of a platoon - the other sections could bunch up once it's left.

I expect the whole thing to be vapourware but at least it's interesting vapourware...